


In His Mind's Eye

by ADashOfStarshine (ADashOfInsanity)



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 14:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADashOfInsanity/pseuds/ADashOfStarshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ephraim sees Lyon everywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In His Mind's Eye

Ephraim sees him often out of the corner of his eye. One moment he stands there but as soon as Ephraim tries to get a closer look he is gone. 

One day he sees him in the throne room of Grado Keep. He hovers behind Duessel as the General gives orders to a pair of knights. Ephraim glimpses his slight smile and turns so quickly that the stack of papers he is being handed topples all over the floor. The serving boy apologises hastily and blames himself but Ephraim barely hears him. Lyon is gone.

The next time he sees Lyon is in the bathtub. Not Lyon of course, he himself had needed to wash but just as he rose from drenching suds from his hair he saw a glimpse of lilac. A shimmering figure, obscured by the soapy waters stands purple before the tub. He hastily rises, spraying water everywhere, but Lyon is nowhere to be seen.

Lyon is everywhere. Sometimes he smiles. Sometimes he cries. He sits by the window in Ephraim’s chambers bathed in moonlight. He stands silently in the corner of vast rooms and mostly empty halls. He smiles in the shadowy corner of that memorable courtyard even as the neat flowerbeds and once noble benches fall into ruin from neglect.

It becomes too much. Ephraim passes the reigns to Duessel for a while with the excuse that Eirika needs his assistance in Renais. He rides wildly, hoping with every mile that the spectre will stay put in his home. That Lyon will stay in Grado, where he belongs.

His hopes were in vain.

Lyon appears to him bloodied in his family dining room. He drops his knife and fork with a loud clatter and Eirika asks what the matter is. It is clear she cannot see him. Lyon has blood staining his robes, a great wound on his chest. Ephraim shudders and says it is nothing. When he looks back at the same spot, Lyon has gone, his blood with him. Eirika suggests Ephraim rest for the night. He must be tired. He does not see Lyon in his room that night but he now realises Lyon must know where it is.

Lyon finds his chambers three nights later. He is not bloody then, just disappointed. Ephraim catches that forlorn gaze peeking round the curtain before it is gone. Ephraim wonders if the spectre is lonely before pulling himself together. Lyon is not haunting him. It is quite impossible. Monsters there may be but there was no such thing as ghosts. Lyon is a figment of a daydream brought about by weariness. He is not real. He does not mean anything.

Ephraim still feels awful the next day when Lyon appears at breakfast, red eyed and crying. He did not deny Lyon’s existence from then on but was firm in his decision that there were no such things as ghosts.

He is unsure but Ephraim is certain Lyon’s appearances are becoming more frequent. Every few days becomes every other day. After a month or so, every other day becomes every day, sometimes more than once. Ephraim had woken in the middle of the night to see Lyon waiting for him in the next room, a spectre in the light of a window with open curtains. As soon as he’s in the room, Lyon is gone. On that occasion Lyon spoke.

“You’re still chasing after me…hopelessly.”

Ephraim pretends not to understand why Lyon says that. He wrestles his pillow before falling into a fitful slumber.

Ephraim likes to think Lyon’s happiness is tied to his own though he doesn’t want to think about the implications of that. When he is mildly at peace with what he is doing Lyon appears with that timid half-smile that Ephraim once loved. When Ephraim is left to his own thoughts, when his mood turns reflective and miserable, that is when Lyon appears with his wide eyes and wet cheeks. As Ephraim tries to ease the ache in his shoulder or the pains in his leg Lyon stands there beside him, bloodied. 

Ephraim goes and asks Eirika whether she has seen him. She clearly thinks he is mad but does not say it. She suggests Ephraim have a day to himself to try and ease the stress. She goes as far as asking him to see a healer.

Ephraim doesn’t. He cannot take a day off either. There is far too much that needs to be done.  
Soon he has to return to Grado. He dreads it but not because of Lyon. Lyon is with him wherever he goes. A constant companion. It’s as if Lyon doesn’t want to part from him again.

The night before he was set to travel back to Grado, he decided to turn in early. Lyon had appeared at dinner again, sitting in the seat opposite him looking afraid of his surroundings. As usual he wasn’t there for long. Ephraim had excused himself shortly afterwards and asked the servants to draw him a bath. Once all was prepared he was alone.

“Don’t you watch me whilst I’m undressing,” he says pointlessly. He has tried to converse with Lyon. It never happens. Lyon isn’t even here right now. Sometimes however, Ephraim believes he is there always, just out of sight. He sinks into the hot water with a sigh and tries to put his mind at ease. With a deep breath he submerges himself, relaxing his tired body.

Lyon arrives above him this time, his expression blurred and unreadable. Ephraim blows a string of bubbles but the spectre remains.   
He is surprised. A second look upwards and Lyon isn’t fading. Ephraim stares and stares, his mind quite blank of any other purpose. He is mesmerised by that blurred face, it is smiling. He is sure of it. He blinks. Lyon is still there. Lyon is staying. Lyon is smiling. Lyon is smiling for him just like he used to.

Ephraim never hears the shriek of the maid who comes in to find her King in the bathtub under an inch of water. He is ghostly white yet smiling widely. She shrieks again. No one can rouse him.


End file.
